Men's Soccer

PARK RIDGE, Ill. – After winning the Big Ten Championship on Saturday, Northwestern earned the No. 1 seed and an automatic spot in the semifinals of the 2011 Big Ten Men’s Soccer Tournament. The tournament will be held on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Mich., with opening-round matchups played on Wednesday, semifinal games on Friday and the championship match on Sunday. The tournament winner will earn the Big Ten’s automatic berth to the NCAA Championship.

The Wildcats went undefeated in six conference games this season, posting a 4-0-2 mark. The title marks Northwestern’s first Big Ten Championship.

Ohio State, which owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over Wisconsin, earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament after ending the season with a 4-2 conference record. The Buckeyes will face No. 7 Penn State at approximately 3:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday in the tournament’s second game.

Wisconsin earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament after finishing 4-2 in conference play. The Badgers will face No. 6 Michigan at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET in Wednesday’s final game.

Indiana earned the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will face No. 5 seed Michigan State in the tournament’s opening game at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The two teams faced off on Oct. 23, which ended in a 2-2 tie.

The top-seeded Wildcats will face the winner of the matchup between Indiana and Michigan State at 1 p.m. ET on Friday. The second semifinal will pit the winner of the Ohio State-Penn State and Wisconsin-Michigan games at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET. The tournament championship game will be held at Noon ET on Sunday. The semifinals and final will be televised live on BTN.